AGX-17

....So you're saying that if your skill goes up it becomes easier? How is this different from nearly every other pickpocketing mechanic in games? It's not really a "game" if "low skill" means you have to run X distance away to be successful. You're just throwing away all possibility that an NPC could be perceptive and/or dextrous and catch you in the act in the first place. The player honestly shouldn't be able to even see what's in the inventory of someone they're pickpocketing. How can you rummage through someone's entire inventory without them noticing all their belongings jostling around and the guy squatting right next to them? Why would they stop so you can check their inventory? Politeness? Picking a pocket in reality is about making off with a wallet or some cash or other small goods. It's opportunism, not strategically planned heavy equipment transit logistics. Aside from that, it's not picking a pocket if you grab the enchanted greatsword off of some brute warrior's back and make a run for it. And he's going to notice and give chase. You might as well just attack people in the streets and steal their stuff when they're unconscious/dead.

That sounds boring. Walking back and forth between the major cities? That just sounds like a repeatable grinding quest. And the player is supposed to be the center of some world/cosmos-changing event by chance. This game isn't going to be Skyrim. The only source of experience in P:E is by completing quests. You will receive zero experience for every combat encounter unless victory in that encounter is the end of a quest.

I sure as **** hope not. There should be an alternative with no furries or MSPaint sonic the hedgehog versions of X character from Y intellectual property, or MSPaint sonic the hedgehog Mary Sue versions of the "artist." There's a now classic "game" in which you search for your own name, or the name of a favored fictional character or even real person of note with the suffix "the hedgehog." If you don't get any results, you win the game. If you do, you just get mad. There are plenty of genuinely good artists on DA, like the woman who did those TF2 comics and having her fanart design of the Announcer become the official design, but for every one of those there are eight under-age/machild Sonic the Hedgehog fanatics/furry fetishists. Yes, the sonic freaks/furries are definitively deviants, but they're what makes the site a cesspit rather than a showcase for aspiring artists. I don't think any animation studios are really going to be impressed by a given individual's intimate knowledge of animal phalli and their ability to depict them in cartoon form. If I were aspiring to a career as a professional artist (as in working for companies, not as in a professional artist who makes art which may be exhibited in galleries or museums and derive their income from sales of that artwork,) I wouldn't want to be linked to that site in any way. Just imagine the job interview.

I agree with this, aside from the character creation backgrounds. I'm curious, why do you feel this way? Arcanum may do some things wrong, but it does things that are great. It fools you into thinking tech is equally viable to magic and fantasy melee combat when in fact the mechanics are not and tech/guns/etc. are inferior to magic and swords. That's my big beef with Arcanum. Unrelated to that post, about to go on a tirade on Auxilius' mention of Throwing: throwing knives or whatever is not a viable combat option given the setting, anyway. It's always been perplexing to me how many RPGs have a throwing skill when the last time that was useful in military operations was in the ancient/classical era, and even then either civilized or barbarian forces just threw their pilae, javelins, spears or axe/s at the start of a battle to weaken the defenses of the enemy's front and then proceeded in standard infantry fashion. Thrown spears or javelins are paleolithic weapon systems. A steampunk setting has no real justification for a throwing skill. No soldier has been trained specifically to throw things in hundreds of years. Throwing hand grenades is not an acceptable defense, either, because throwing skills in RPGs typically focus on sideshow tricks like throwing knives.

The Turks will probably complete their invasion/conquest of the island. The northern half having been invaded and occupied by Turkey in 1974.

You want the first one? The first Steam preorder bonus for Infinite is a free copy of Bioshock, which I already have, so I have one to gift.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/indiana-tomb-raider.php

I've never heard a single good thing about Heavy Rain. I've heard people say it could have been good if it had a different/not-horribly awful writer. But that doesn't really count as positive feedback.

I am always interested in whether people like Gaider and McComb really like each other. There must be loads of professional rivalry and even on a personal level I'm sure all these writers want to be known by the fans as the "best Fantasy RPG writer ever". They all are so talented but sometimes I assume there style gets dictated to by a Publisher? Who would accuse Gaider of being the best fantasy RPG writer ever? Anyway, as a backer of the game, I'm wondering who here hasn't kicked and is man or woman enough to get us MCA before the Kickstarter ends. That's not necessarily true, their last major product was published by Bethesda.

Posting real Fine Art in a "fine art" thread. OH SNAP Anyone notice a difference between Russian fine art (the second and third images,) and Russian propaganda? Gustav Klimt's Lady With a Fan Valentin Serov's The Girl With Peaches Ivan Aivazovsky's The Ninth Wave Part of Ai Weiwei's Study of Perspective Series (Red Square, Moscow) Don't know who the douchebag benedictevans is, putting his watermark on Ai Weiwei's work. Part of Ai Weiwei's Study of Perspective Series (White House, Washington D.C.) A video game company's forum with a user who never posts about video games. It's a brilliant coup.

XCOM. I wish turn-based combat wasn't so maligned by cRPG fans. Reloading every time a squaddie gets killed. I refuse to accept anything but perfection (maybe because of too much Super Robot Wars.) Loving it, anyway. Learned the hard way there's no auto-save or option to restart a scenario/stage. Well, whatever, I've got an American named Guile, a Russian named Zangief and a female sniper nicknamed "Wolf." Also pre-loading Bioshock Infinite now. Imagine that.

Considering that isn't a word in the English language, I'm going to assume you meant "snippets." Anyway, there is no codex in NV (strictly speaking, there is no codex in any video game unless it's a hefty tome of religious scripture or ancient literature,) when you refer to murals and cave paintings you're referring to unwritten narratives, not "codex entries." But yes, the best way to expand upon a game world is to do it in game, not through UI-accessed menus. Codices. I don't see how clothes and food are "lore." Besides, there's no legitimate argument against the world's history in text. The Bible and ancient classics from Hellenic Greece and Rome to Han Dynasty China were preserved by being written down. There are still Han-era administrative records in existence, that's how serious the Han people have always been about bureaucracy. You can't say it's unrealistic, unbelievable, immersion-breaking or what-have-you when real people have been keeping tax and census records from 2000 years ago, in addition to classic literature, scripture, theater and poetry.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Plays a lot better than the original (downright terrible combat at times, cheap combat encounters abound, like jumping down from a ledge with no gun, zooms to one Taken out far in front of you and three are right behind you out of camera view, even if you avoid them, you haven't got enough stamina to sprint to the light/checkpoint you're supposed to sprint to, and there's a generator you can't possibly activate with 4+ enemies chasing you placed as a deliberate cheap trap by the devs to get you killed, that sort of thing.) Obviously the scares are few and far between as a result, but the story and style are much more creative than the original game. Also currently downloading X-COM: Enemy Unknown. Yes, free because of Bioshock Infinite preorder.

That's... not really analogous.

Pretty much everything in Skyrim is in books. It's entirely optional save for one or two quests, and even then all you typically need to do is "activate" the book. You never have to read any of it regardless of where it's inserted. Nobody's forcing you to click on a codex menu in any Bioware game, either. Anyway, like Sensuki suggested, vagaries and mystery are better than detailed biographies of every daedric prince.

It's called a reboot. They had already started it in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, they continued with Heroes of Might & Magic 5. You don't need 'reasons' to do it. I never played the game, but seeing others play HoMM 4, I really thought the brand was in need of some re-focusing, with some factions that had no real them or identity to them. Olivier Ledroit brought a coherent visual look, Nival brought back some of the gameplay before the fourth game, etc. The "reason" is that the devs of DM and HoMM5 had no connection to New World Computing or the original devs of the M&M franchise. Heroes 3 was the pinnacle of the series. Not without flaws, but 4 was a huuuuuge step in the wrong direction, a massive drop in quality compared to 3. 5 is just mediocrity incarnate.

Yes, at 9:26:53, both AM and PM.

Because politicians, capitalism and racism. Simple, really. A righteous capitalist crusade to civilize the inferior yellow races of Asia, misled by the vile communists, to spread the one true religion of capitalism appealed to the "silent majority." The entire cold war was an exercise in the US engaging in anti-democratic covert operations around the world. Democratically elected governments that were leftist were overthrown by US backed fascist coups left and right for 30-40 odd years. Hell, it was like that long before then. The US overthrew the democratically elected government of Honduras at one point so that it could be used as a corporate banana plantation colony by Dole. I do not think Reagan himself was involved, but like the Iran-Contra affair, i think that there were suspect members of his cabinet that had potential to do so. From what i could gather about his personality, he did put to too much trust on the people within his administration. He supported the Contras openly. Selling weapons to Iran is secondary to the fact that the US, and Reagan, prolonged a vicious civil war in Nicaragua, with at least tens of thousands of human deaths involved. I know the man was a dimwit, but regardless, he was a True Believer in the Hayekian/Randian worldview. He's the one who shredded benefits for the mentally ill and Vietnam veterans, putting them out on the street with little/no resources, in a country that now hated them for actions they had no control over. Ronald Reagan was still the man at the top, and he had a lot of Nicaraguan blood on his hands when he died. I doubt he lost a wink of sleep over it, too. Alzheimer's or not. Fun fact: Ronald Reagan is still the most hated, vilified person in Nicaragua to this day.

Psshhhhh, inXile. Pssshhhh. They don't have MCA. Besides, elements and magic are more in the realm of the gameplay mechanics/design, it's true that the writers will have input on that area, but it's still up to the higher level game designers to actually determine the mechanics and what ultimately comes out of their ideas on magic or elements. It's being helmed by Sawyer so I don't see any problems in that realm of design. Avellone, so far as I know, is just working on writing. So far as I know. Also, I needed to say this: OP, the idea of real-world chemical elements in a fantasy magic game about souls is just absurd. Absolutely ludicrous. Absoludicrous (© Seanbaby.) There's no "magic" in physics and cosmology unless you're using figurative speech about a personal interest and fascination. Actually they do....that's what makes Cyphers unique....didn't you read the updates when the stretch goal adding the cyphers was made? Mind control or at least heavy mind influence is their thing. Ciphers have nothing to do with the absurdity of having real-world modern chemistry and physics in a fantasy world of magic and souls. What are you even talking about? Uh, why is it absurd? That's an honest question. I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out why a game with equipment presumably synthesized through processes dependent on crudely realized chemical reactions shouldn't have real-world chemical elements in it, especially if their properties are adapted to the game's universe. Those elements are in most fantasy universes, after all; I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure iron (swords, shields, etc.) and gold (coins) are on the real periodic table that exists in real life, right? Why shouldn't more interesting things be done with those elements than sticking their names on a weapon to denote how powerful it is? What valid, logical reason is there not to at least explore that idea? For that matter, I admit I haven't been here very long, but every post of yours I've seen has been one putting another person down for suggesting an idea. Do you have any of your own ideas to offer, or are you just here to put people down? Because the latter isn't exactly helpful, you know. :? Because chemistry is not magic. Physics is not magic. You can't wave your arms around or chant some magic words and summon a hydrogen fusion reaction. The real world is comprised of cause-and-effect relationships, magic and hard science cannot coexist in a fictional world with any degree of believability, because magical thinking involves no causal relationship between two things. Science has proven time and time again that superstition and magical thinking are simply fallacious. You can't have a fantasy world about souls and magic be believable if you simultaneously give that world the same physics as reality and the people in it modern knowledge of atomic physics and quantum mechanics. If real-world physics apply, then magic cannot exist. There's only so much disbelief that can be suspended. Now, I'm sure one uneducated in the ways of physics, chemistry and biology are perfectly fine with the idea of a Magnesium school of magic, but those of us who have an inkling of how our universe is actually ordered and works can't tolerate that level of absurdity. I don't care what your ignorance of every post I've ever made causes you to think of me. It's called critical thinking. Look it up sometime. It's extremely valuable, and something which the majority of people seem to lack. Just because an idea is had doesn't make it good, appropriate or viable. If you want an echo-chamber of people who sit around telling each other all the worst ideas are super great, go hang out on the Nexus sites' forums.

Sure but why would you have to bother accounting for something like that? I suppose you can just do an "average gear level" comparison then. You just ignored my point. If you have a high level party and deliberately equip low-end/low level gear, and the enemy's judgement is based on gear as the OP said, they would still make the pointless, futile attack the OP was complaining about. Actually they have logical thought up to a point, of course not the same as humans. In games, we see every animal as mindless beast which attacks player as soon as sees him. In reality, every animal has different level of intelligence and habit. Some animals tend to stay away from groups, some animals hunt grouped animals with their packs, some animals stay away from bigger animals, some animals don't care the size... Intelligence and reason are not identical. There are very few animals capable of logical thought (Ravens are the most prominent ones that immediately come to mind, there is ample evidence/documentation of them solving problems and creating original tools and strategies to that end without engaging in trial & error or being taught, but you're ignoring the fact that none of the animals that have been theorized to be capable of such thought are typical or even ever enemies in fantasy RPGs, and if/when they are, it simply shows that developers give zero ****s about real animal cognition so this is an exercise in futility.) And the second part, you're just regurgitating what I already said about the variance in behavior depending on species as if I didn't say it and you're making a brilliant counter-argument.

You already know the origin of the Reapers and the Citadel, who controls them, etc., why give a **** about some bugs they made/repurposed as maintenance men? What's so special about "keeper #20"? How do you know it's not doing what every keeper does? And again, you already know what's in charge. What would dissuade you from thinking Keeper #20 isn't the real mastermind behind everything? Three surveillance clips each for Keepers #1-#236759? It was never advertised as "The Keepers DLC - The true puppeteers finally revealed!" I literally cannot comprehend how you can think this is worse than RGB IT WAS ALL A FAIRYTALE THE END And, for the record, I was thoroughly disappointed by the DLC and really wish I hadn't wasted any money on it.

Wow, they need to hire a non-**** graphic design team. Also, they ruined Heroes of Might and Magic (well, NWC actually started the decline with IV, but V was frenchie garbage that didn't have anything to do with M&M,) so this can't bode any better. It'll probably just be a Skyrim clone since M&M had a first-person perspective. So? Ubisoft ****ed up Heroes when NWC already nailed down the whole formula near-perfectly with III, why would you think their performance would suddenly do a 180 from their established track record with Heroes V & VI? Dark Messiah was little more than a slightly improved version of Arx Fatalis. Dishonored is a drastic improvement over Dark Messiah. Don't even pretend they're unrelated, it's exactly the same fundamental game design/combat mechanics in all three, DM just had better UI design and an absurdly kick-focused design ethic, Dishonored is the only one to actually make the formula work well.

On all the sites I frequented when the two games were released, it was about 70% Witcher fans hurling vitriol at the then-unreleased DA2 and about a 50/50 split between Biodrones claiming DA2 would be the best RPG ever and fans of DAO who were outraged by the sequel's promised changes. Anyway, about to try "KING'S BOUNTY CROSSWORLDS GOTY." No familiarity with the title, but it was $2.00 and had better review scores than most of the other games in the sale. Now downloading Alan Wake (which flew under my radar completely until about a year ago, since it didn't hit PC until 2 years after its original ecksbawcks release.) Agx you need to be patient and continue to play Witcher 1, it does get better. If there is anything that confuses you about the plot please ask, you have always been very helpful with sharing insight in other games so don't be embarrassed. Have you had a threesome with the Vampiresses yet? You'll enjoy that Now you're just insulting me.

I agree except for the animals thing. Animals aren't self-aware creatures capable of rational, logical thought. In general they tend to avoid groups of humans to begin with. Some pack animals might be hostile even to a group of well-armed humans, but that's out of fight-or-flight instinct. In the case of wolves, wolves would probably just avoid them. A bear might go for it, if it's a big male looking to defend his territory/fatten up for winter, or a defensive mother bear. You (i.e. a highwayman in the world of P:E,) can't see (so far as we know,) someone's "level." A high-level party deliberately equipped with crappy gear would still be perceived as being weak, easy prey by a logically-thinking bandit leader.

Of course, the Argentine's are basically saying that the vote doesn't matter, and regardless of how the islanders feel, the islands should still be given to Argentina. What might add some interest to the matters is the new Pope, who , while a Cardinal, made quite a few public comments about "British usurpers/invaders" on the islands and was apparently quite vigerous about how the Argentine soldiers who died during the Falkland War need to be remembered, honoured, and (depending on how you take his tone of delivery) possibly given vengeance. While I'm all for honouring fallen soldiers who did their duty, I tend to think you give up the ability to claim vengeance when you actually are the ones who invaded in the first place.... Still, as a lawyer friend of mine noted: "It is essential to Argentina's argument that it rejects (a) the right to self-determination, (b) domiciled jurisdiction and © any statute of limitations. If these three principles are accepted Argentina has no claim. If they are rejected Argentina has no right to exist!" Argentinians have never occupied the Falklands, and never made any formal claim to sovereignty that was more legitimate than those of the other colonial powers that had claimed it (the French were the first, building a colony on one, the British built a colony of their own on another before both were forced out by the Spanish.) The islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans (the Earliest known record of them is from a Dutch explorer,) and subsequently changed hands between colonial powers numerous times. The British claim to sovereignty over the islands dates back to 1690, long before Argentina existed as a state. Regardless of which, it was uninhabited and thus there is no indigenous claim to the islands (even then, the majority/dominant population in most major latin American countries are of mostly European descent and still actively discriminate against pure native americans in their own countries.) But they were all European colonies. Argentina's only tenuous claim is that a post-Bolivarian state which would later become part of Argentina suffered a shipwreck on one of the islands, and a letter from the captain of the wrecked ship is what Argentinians claim as proof of their ownership of the islands.